DON'T FORCE ME
by Tribeca
Summary: My reaction/response to the first episode of season six. Or as I like to think of it, the deleted scenes we didn't get to see.


**A/N: I found myself so rushed on this one. I challenged myself to write a response to last night's season six premiere in under an hour and this is what came out. There may be typos and/or other errors because I am very short on time but I felt I just had to get this out there.**

**The usual legal stuff: I don't own CBS, The Big Bang Theory or any of the characters therein. If I did there would be no need in my writing fanfic because Sheldon and Penny would be canon.**

**Hang on for season six, folks!**

DON'T FORCE ME

"Go on Penny, tell him you love him. Just say the words. You know you do."

Penny's mouth was agape. She could not believe that what had started out as a pretty decent evening was going downhill so fast. She was tired from work and had just planned on hanging with Leonard for the night. He was buying the beer and preparing the food. There would be football watching and no sex. It was just want she wanted.

And then Leonard had gone all female on her and started talking about feelings and relationships and now Raj was sitting here demanding she tell Leonard she loves him. Couldn't both of them see that if she loved Leonard she would tell him? Really, did she ever have a problem saying what she wanted to say?

At a restaurant across town Sheldon was engaging in his own battle of wills. Amy was pushing him, his back was against the wall and he'd just spewed out some sticky sweet quote from a Spiderman movie. Hell, it was the first thing that came to his mind. She had demanded he say something romantic and Peter Parker, a.k.a, Spiderman's word were the first that came to his mind. It was probably because that morning he had read one of his Spiderman comic books while waiting on Leonard to drive him to work. She never stipulated that it couldn't be written by someone else, meant to be spoken by someone else and to someone else.

It was bad enough that Raj had been there earlier buying them champagne and toasting their anniversary. And then Amy had threatened to leave him which would have meant he would have to take a filthy cab home, or worse, ride the bus with no safety restraints in place (he had left his bungee cords at home). Now she was imploring him to say something romantic to fulfill the Relationship Agreement that, now that he thought about it, he should have never written or signed to begin with. At least he had managed to find some loopholes.

Now he was merely imploring Nerd 101. Something every nerd learns early on. Say whatever it is you have to say to end the conflict. He'd learned this in first grade when Randy Moss had pressed his face into the mud and dirt of the playground and told him he wouldn't let him up until he said "uncle." That was easy enough, six-year-old Sheldon had reasoned. He muttered the word and Randy had let go of him as he and his friends laughed and then ran off to chase the girls on the playground.

Quoting Spidey to Amy was just Sheldon's way of crying "uncle."

By the end of the night, Penny had kicked Raj out and he ended up dancing with Stuart at the comic book store, Penny had made some excuse to get away from Leonard and his moronic "Go Sports" Sharpie scribbling on his (let's face it) flabby stomach, and Amy had begrudgingly dropped Sheldon off in front of his apartment building without so much as a goodnight kiss.

"Good evening, Penny," Sheldon said as he trudged up the stairs towards his apartment, glad the anniversary celebration was over and he wouldn't have to deal with that fresh hell for another year.

"Hey Sheldon," she huffed, keeping her eyes fixed on her Uggs, making a mental notation of how handsome he looked in the suit he wore.

"Is someone having coitus in your apartment?" he stopped and dropped his gaze to her.

"What?" she brought her eyes up to meet his.

"Well, the last time I was banished to the stairwell it was because Leonard was having coitus with Leslie Winkle. I can think of no other reason why you would be sitting here. Unless of course you tried to use your car key to open your apartment door like you did once before. Is that it?"

She laughed and pushed herself up to a standing position. She stepped up two stairs so that she could put herself eye to eye to meet his height and then dangled her keychain at him.

"No, just escaping Leonard and his 'feelings,'" she said, using her fingers for quotation purposes.

"Yes, I understand. I just escaped my own encounter with Amy and her 'feelings,'" he sympathized.

"Well, at least you didn't have Raj there making things worse," she retorted, offering him a comforting half smile as she spoke.

"Not true. It would appear that after Koothrappali failed at obtaining a declaration of love for Amy from me, he moved on to you and Leonard. I, as the popular slang goes, feel your pain."

"Oh. Sorry. Well, come on, I'll walk up with you."

The sad, aching, angry sounds of EMO music floated from under the door of 4A as they reached their floor. Leonard's off key wailing caused them both to shudder and shake their heads with knowing looks of dread.

"God, how can a grown man be so pathetic?" she ask, mostly rhetorically.

Sheldon shrugged his shoulders but didn't even want to try and verbalize his thoughts concerning his needy, greedy roommate.

"Hey Sheldon, want to come over for some tea or something? After the night you had, I doubt you want to go in there and deal with _that_."

He had been looking forward to getting to his room and preparing for bed and reading comic books (anything but that damn Spiderman) before turning in for the night, he knew no amount of noise reducing headphones and blaring of Richard Fineman lectures would drown out Leonard's preposterous lamenting.

Besides, he admitted in the deepest confines of his mind, Penny looked particularly fetching tonight. And he much would prefer her company to that of his whiney roommate.

"Thank you Penny. I accept your offer. I concur that a hot beverage would indeed be preferable to what's taking place in my own apartment."

While they waited for the water to boil for the tea, he had taken off his suit jacket and was actually relaxed enough to unbutton the top two buttons of his shirt. She excused herself and changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt. He sat in his usual chair, the one she had actually purchased for him (although she'd rather have someone pull her fingernails out one by one than admit _that_).

By the time she returned the kettle was whistling its alert that the water was ready. She made the tea, gave him his (sugar, no cream), prepared her own, then curled up on the sofa. She grabbed her newly purchased DVD of The Avengers and reached for the remote to turn the tv on, but was surprised when he ask her to put some music on instead. He figured superheroes had gotten him into enough trouble tonight.

She obliged his request and then asked what that was all about. He told her how he had quoted Spidey to Amy and they both laughed, despite the despondent tone of his voice.

Hot jazz notes drifted through the speakers of her stereo system and she told him of Leonard's attempt to impress her by writing on his stomach. Even Sheldon knew that if one was going to participate in the custom of supporting sporting events, the writing should be done in the chest area. She giggled and complimented him on the fact that he knew the proper placement of such nonsense.

"So Penny, why can't you tell him you love him?"

The mood in the room had shifted from the commiserating of their respective circumstances to honest discussion of their seemingly doomed relationships with Amy and Leonard. Somewhere along the way, and neither of them could really say when, Penny had turned the lights down, lit a couple of candles and he had moved from (his) chair to the sofa.

"Maybe because I don't," she confessed quietly.

"But you've dated him, had coitus with him, been in a relationship with him, for quiet some time now. I don't understand."

"Sheldon," she reached to put her teacup on the table in front of her and turned her body to face him, "I could ask you the same question. Why can't you tell Amy you love her? And, for the record, you've been in a relationship for two years with her."

He shifted nervously and took a big gulp of his now tepid tea.

"Point made," he nodded and sighed.

"I really hate that all of my friends, well all except you," she cut her eyes towards him, "keep pushing me towards Leonard. Amy and Bernadette keep at me about Leonard and my relationship with him. And tonight, Raj was relentless."

"Yes, I've found myself on the receiving end of our friends attempting to push me into a relationship with Amy as well," he paused and then added, "and I guess that's why two years have gone by so quickly."

"I feel like I've been forced into a relationship with Leonard kind of by default," she said.

It occurred to her that she had never thought of her relationship with Leonard like this until she actually said it out loud.

He raised his eyes at her, "By default?"

"Well, I mean, you know. I met you guys when I moved in and Leonard just, I don't know, sort of…"

"Claimed you?"

"Yes."

"Without your consent?"

"Yes," she lifted her hands to her face and smoothed her palms across her cheeks in an effort to comfort herself.

"And you would have preferred?"

She felt her face go warm, and wondered if he was really going to go _there._ She figured she better turn the tables on him quickly or she was going to end up embarrassing herself by being honest with him.

"Me? What about you Sheldon? If not Amy, what would you have preferred?"

His ears felt like they were on fire and he knew it was now or never. He only had to muster the courage to push out one word. No one was there to force him like they always seemed to do with him and Amy or how they forced Penny and Leonard. He had one shot and he figured this might be the only opportunity to take it.

"You," he pushed out.

"Me?" she whispered.

"Penny," he spoke quietly, locking his eyes with hers, "if Leonard hadn't been your default, who would you have preferred?"

She slowly reached to take his hand in hers and lifted it to her mouth. She kissed him softly on the backside of his hand and smiled up at him, batting back the tears that threatened to spill over and wash down her face.

"You, Sheldon. You. It's always been you."

He pulled her towards him and he traced a nervous hand across her face. She leaned in to kiss him on the cheek and was surprised when he shifted his head and met her lips with his.

And no one in their social group was there to force them to do anything. They did it all on their own. And it was a beautiful thing.


End file.
